1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a Compact Peripheral Component Interconnect (cPCI) system. More particularly, the present invention relates to a front panel assembly for the exterior of a cPCI front card.
2. Description of Related Art
cPCI is a high performance industrial bus based on the standard cPCI electrical specification in rugged 3U or 6U Eurocard packaging. cPCI is intended for application in telecommunications, computer telephony, real-time machine control, industrial automation, real-time data acquisition, instrumentation, military systems or any other application requiring high speed computing, modular and robust packaging design, and long term manufacturer support. Because of its high speed and bandwidth, the cPCI bus is particularly well suited for many high-speed data communication applications such as servers, routers, converters, and switches.
Compared to a standard desktop PCI system, a cPCI system supports twice as many PCI slots (typically 8 versus 4) and offers an ideal packaging scheme for industrial applications. Conventional cPCI front cards (front cards) are designed for front loading and removal from a card cage. Typically the front cards provide substantially all features and functions (i.e., clocking, arbitration, configuration, and interrupt processing) of the cPCI system. A corresponding rear transition card is typically coupled to each of the front cards. The rear transition card allows access to the features and functions of the front card by providing the input/output ports, such as serial or parallel ports.
A typical cPCI front card is firmly held in position by its front panel assembly and side card guide(s) on a card cage. The front panel assembly includes pin-and-socket connectors(s) that solidly connects the front card into the card cage. The front card is mounted vertically to allow for natural or forced air convection for cooling. In the attached position, the front panel assembly serves to seal and protect the front card within the card cage.
The conventional front cards are constructed mainly from a relatively thin printed circuit board (approximately 3.70 mm) that can be bent easily. The inadvertent bending of a printed circuit board on a cPCI front card can damage the front card and in turn damage the functions and features of the cPCI system. In addition, the deflection of the front card may violate the cPCI card envelope dimensions. The envelope dimensions are an industry standard that defines the required width, length and thickness of a cPCI card (e.g., the standard in the PICMG 2.0 cPCI specification). A violation of the cPCI card envelope standard, for example, may prevent a cPCI front card from being properly inserted into its corresponding cPCI slot.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide a cPCI front panel assembly that can prevent a cPCI front card from deflecting before the card is in the attached position. That is, it would be desirable to provide a cPCI front panel assembly that makes the cPCI front card stronger to prevent card damage and deflection. In addition, it would be desirable to provide a front panel assembly that is stronger than its corresponding cPCI front card's circuit board.